Christian Slater 'putting his hat in the ring' for 'Live!' co-host gig

The 47-year-old actor recently co-hosted "Live!" with Kelly Ripa, and during his appearance on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" -- airing Thursday -- he made it clear that he wouldn't mind it becoming a permanent gig.

"I love it, I live about, you know, six blocks away from there," Slater told DeGeneres about the New York City set. "It's one of the greatest jobs ever."

News broke on Wednesday that early frontrunner Anderson Cooper has taken himself out of the running to be Ripa's permanent Live! co-host. A source close to Cooper confirmed to ET that the 49-year-old journalist will be staying with CNN -- where he currently hosts the news program "Anderson Cooper 360" -- and is no longer being considered to replace Michael Strahan on the daytime talk show.

Cooper was actually Ripa's "first choice" to co-host alongside her, a source close to "Live!" also told ET.

"The show is going to stick to doing a round robin shuffle of guest co-hosts for the time being," the source said. "Kelly likes the dynamic right now, so they're not in a hurry to make a decision anymore."